When there is much clamour for the extension of the branches of Indian institutions like IITs and IIMs to foreign countries, the Supreme Court in an impotent judgment has ruled that any degree by a foreign college affiliated to an Indian University will be illegal if there is no “prior” sanction for such affiliation from the Indian government.
“The affiliated college/institution (in foreign country) where the course of study is undergone should have prior permission of the Central government,” a bench of Justices R.V. Raveendran and H.L. Gokhale ruled.
The apex court further said that any degree form such a foreign institution affiliated to an Indian university, would not either be considered a degree granted by a foreign authority or institution.
The important ruling came in a case of “Mauras College of Dentistry” established by the Mauritius government as Hospital and Oral Research Institution in their country in 2003 and affiliated to Bhavnagar University in Gujarat.
But the Mauras College had not got prior sanction from the Indian government to get it affiliated to Bhavnagar University.
After the Indian students passing out from the college faced difficulty in enrolling themselves as dentists in India and were asked by the Dental Council of India (DCI) to undergo “screening” test, they challenged it in the Gujarat high court, which directed the Indian government to grant the sanction.
However, the government issued an order in 2009 confining its recognition “specifically” to the degrees of the students of 2003-04 and 2004-05 batches.